krou writes: It looks as if Rupert Murdoch isn't the only one complaining about news from the BBC distorting the market. The BBC Trust has received an appeal from the Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA) urging them to prevent the BBC from launching its own iPhone apps. The NPA has also stated they would discuss the matter with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and MPs on the Media Select Committee. David Newell, director of the NPA, said: 'Not for the first time, the BBC is preparing to muscle into a nascent market and trample over the aspirations of commercial news providers.' He claimed that iPhone apps were 'a unique and narrow commercial space', something that the BBC would 'distort': 'This is not, as the BBC argues, an extension of its existing online service, but an intrusion into a very tightly defined, separate market... [Development of apps] for a niche market does not sit comfortably with the BBC's mission to broadcast its content to a wide, general audience. We strongly urge the BBC Trust to block these damaging plans, which threaten to strangle an important new market for news and information.' The BBC has stated in response that 'plans to deliver BBC News, Sport and iPlayer content via smartphone apps fall within the terms of its existing BBC service licence and that the plans do not constitute a significant change to the service.'